


Homecoming

by The_Plaid_Slytherin



Series: Homecoming [2]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: AU, Earth, F/M, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/pseuds/The_Plaid_Slytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lee and Kara reconnect, months after settlement on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

The Solstice celebration wouldn't kick into full swing until after moonrise, Lee knew, but it was already quite energetic. He didn't know why he'd come; he felt so out of place, but his father had insisted.

Lee scanned the crowd until he saw his dad, dancing with Saul Tigh in the middle of the crush of revelers—people who had been married since the previous Solstice. They were by far the oldest couple there, but they kept up with the traditional dance, matching the other, younger newlyweds. Laughing, his father spun Tigh as the music reached its crescendo and the torches along the perimeter of the dancing circle went out as one. Lee turned away, not wanting to watch the rest of the ceremony.

Behind him, the torches flared to life once more. The couples would be joining hands to dance the circle. Lee knew his dad would be preoccupied with the Apollonian blessing; ironically, perhaps, they'd never miss Lee.

Plus, if he went out ranging again, and didn't come back for months, his father would never remember when exactly he'd left.

"Hey, Lee."

He froze. He almost couldn't believe his ears, though he should never let her surprise him. Kara dropped by at her own convenience, even more so than Lee did. He knew there was a lot his dad refrained from saying about the fact that they both spent most of their time "exploring," and none of it together.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the power of speech seemed to have abandoned him. He blamed Tigh for offering him glass after glass of his newest brew.

"I'm sorry to keep popping up like this." Was she apologizing because he hadn't said anything?

"That's okay, Kara," he said. He still hadn't seen her yet; the torchlight didn't really reach out here. "I do the same myself."

"Yeah, I know." Her voice held the hint of a smile. "Last time I was here, your dads said I'd just missed you."

Lee winced at her use of the plural, didn't bother correcting her. "I guess the last time I saw you was—"

"The wedding, yeah. And this is their first Solstice. Aren't they cute?"

Lee looked back over his shoulder. Tigh was dragging his father enthusiastically through the circle. She laughed and that was when he saw her.

She was closer to him than he'd realized and suddenly, his attention wasn't on his father and Tigh at all.

"I was leaving," he started, hoping she might agree to leave, too.

"I guess I might as well," she said, jamming both her hands in her pockets before Lee could take one of them. "Do you ever wish you'd been able to do this?"

"You mean, the, um, dance?" He didn't want to call it by its name.

She giggled. "I think you'd definitely have won the crown! You _are_ Apollo, after all."

"Yeah," he murmured, thinking back to Dee. He hadn't even been aware of Solstice passing, whenever their first Solstice had been.

"So," she began hesitantly, "when you said you were going to leave…"

"I was going to go back to their place," he said. "The pub's closed, obviously, but they're letting me stay upstairs while I'm in town."

"I know," she said, falling into step behind him. "They let me stay when I'm in town, too."

He ought to have realized that. Bringing up the pub his father and Tigh ran was a nice, safe topic, though.

"Has Tigh finally figured out what to do with that mango thing?"

"Yeah," Lee said, remembering the drink he'd had earlier. "It's good."

Kara stretched her hands high over her head. "Think they'd mind me staying while you're here, too? When I'm out there in the mountains, there's nothing I wouldn't give for some of your dad's cooking, mug of beer, a seat by the fire."

Lee resisted asking her why she ever left if all she wanted to do when she was out there was come back.

"I don't think so," he said, when what he really meant was, "I hope so."

The center of town was dark and quiet—Lee suspected he and Kara were the only people not at the Solstice celebration. Even the Cylons had come to join in many of the human holidays—why pass up a chance to celebrate, after years of war?

Lee let them into the front door of the pub and lit the lamps. Usually, he would have gone in the brewery entrance at the back and gone up the stairs to the apartment, but for some reason, he wanted to be here, in the cozy common room, with Kara.

She seemed to come alive once they were inside, leaping over the carefully-polished bar and standing behind it like she owned the place. "What can I get you?"

Lee sat down on one of the bar stools. "Tigh will kill you if you mess with that. He has a system."

She ignored this, turning to the shelves of booze behind her. "I think this is new. Raspberry ale," she said, taking down a bottle with a handwritten label. She extracted two glasses from behind the bar and filled them.

After they'd each taken a long sip, she said, "So. How long do you think you're staying?"

Lee, who had been planning to leave when she'd waylaid him, had no answer for this.

"I mean," she went on, "isn't it kind of weird that we've been avoiding each other for the past six months? It's almost like it was on purpose."

"I wasn't avoiding you on purpose," Lee said quickly.

She was silent.

"I mean," he hazarded, "I was thinking of staying. And if you stayed, too—"

She drained her glass and set it down again.

"Kara." He said her name, because he couldn't think of anything else to say, and when he looked up to meet her face, it was almost as if they were magnetically attracted to each other.

Lee pushed himself up off his stool so that his lips could meet hers. She tasted like raspberries and something deeper, something he hadn't tasted in her kisses long ago. And it _had_ been so long.

Lee was struggling to remember how long, as he struggled to do this comfortably, when he felt her hand press against his back, wordlessly guiding him up, over the bar, so he could stand beside her.

She kissed him hungrily and he knew it wouldn't stop here, could never stop here. He wondered if this was inevitable, if it would have happened earlier had they not been avoiding each other, but she was gently pulling him down towards the floor and he forgot about everything but her.

**

Light was filtering through the pub's front window, waking Lee. He yawned lazily, looking down at Kara, who was waking slowly beside him.

A throat above them cleared.

A chill shot straight through Lee.

Bill Adama, his husband leaning heavily on him, was looking down at them over the bar, a laurel leaf wreath perched incongruously on top of his head.

"Congratulations!" Kara exclaimed. "You won."

Tigh seemed to perk up a bit now. He leaned forward, his own wreath dangling from his ear. "You better not have drunk all my raspberry ale," he said in a low voice.

Lee was suddenly reconsidering his decision to stay.


End file.
